What a difference 30 degrees makes.
The temps have been in 60s or even 50s during the vast majority of my riding days during this tour. But today, as the route headed inland on Hwy 101 into the bowels of Humboldt County, the temps shot up into the mid 90s, and there was little shade for the brutal afternoon climb to the Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area campground.
Hardest day of the tour. I felt close to passing out several times and had to stop frequently to rest and sip water in what little shade I could find on the side of the highway.
Today’s route also took me through some of the tour’s sketchiest areas, what was once (and probably still is?) the epicenter of the nation’s illegal marijuana industry.
Redway, on one of the route’s supposedly scenic alternatives to the 101, had way more than its share of younger homeless folks, and I pedaled as fast as I could just to get through this spooky, relatively-lightly-trafficked area and back to the more heavily-trafficked 101.
On the 101 itself, I noticed dozens of what I first thought were C02 cartridges littering the highway’s shoulder. Turned out that these were actually N02 (nitrous oxide) cartridges, which some drug abusers use to get high. (Hopefully just the car’s passengers, not also the drivers as they swoop past touring cyclists at high rates of speed?)
In a long-shot stroke of good fortune, I found a 116-link 9-speed bicycle chain at the town sporting goods store in the tiny marijuana town of Garberville.
Clerk just reached down under the counter and pulled it out. “Here you go,” she says.
Bicycle chains can be extremely difficult to find these days due to Covid-related snags in the parts-supply lines.
This was very good news for me because my chains wear out faster than usual—at about 1,000 miles— on tours due to the added stress on them from the bike’s weight and the climbing. I am overdue for a change.
If you don’t replace the chain before it gets too stretched, you risk ruining your cassette and other components, and the bike won’t shift right and the chain may slip.
The kids in the photo below, who are part of an Outward Bound-like group from Maine, had the right idea. They were heading out of the Burlington campground at 7 am this morning, before I had even packed my tent.
Tomorrow I will emulate them and get up extra early so I can ride up through Leggett Hill, supposedly the most challenging climb on the route, and back to the coast before it gets pass-out hot again.
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